A New Vision for Missions: William Cameron Townsend, the Wycliffe Bible Translators, and the Culture of Early Evangelical Faith Missions, 1896-1945

7
In Which Townsend Mixes Science
with Faith, Writes an Audacious Letter,
and Recruits a Few Geniuses along
with More Than a Few Girls
1933–1945

Our experience in Mexico the past 10 years shows us that “aggressive advance
in missions” is absolutely possible and we have followed scientific methods
plus faith. I guess that it wasn't necessary to add those last two words, for
faith is the most scientific thing there is.

—William Cameron Townsend

The winter of 1932 found the Townsends living in a small three- room house
near Cameron's family in Santa Ana, California. Townsend's father dropped by
regularly to make lunch, because Elvira had been ordered to bed with a heart
“in rather bad condition.” Townsend, not particularly healthy himself, was
forced to be both housekeeper and nurse. He continued scheming, even as he
chafed at the enforced inactivity. He worked on his idea for a cruise tour to
Guatemala that would combine the study of missions with inspirational Bible
studies by John Brown and Charles Fuller, both influential radio preachers.
Both Brown and Fuller promised to promote the plan on their radio broadcasts,
and Townsend thought he could sign up twenty- five “tourists” for an eighteento twenty- day trip in February 1933. As with many Townsend schemes, this one
fell through for lack of anyone beside himself “to push it.” But that was only
one of several irons in the fire. He continued to avidly plan for his air crusade to
the “wild tribes” of South America. “If funds were available next Spring I wish
that we might visit some of the countries where these wild Indians exist and are
yet unreached,” he suggested to Hummel. “Gov“ernment” officials could be approached and if their reaction were favorable to the project, then the lay of the

Notes for this page

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.comPublication information:
Book title: A New Vision for Missions: William Cameron Townsend, the Wycliffe Bible Translators, and the Culture of Early Evangelical Faith Missions, 1896-1945.
Contributors: William Lawrence Svelmoe - Author.
Publisher: University of Alabama Press.
Place of publication: Tuscaloosa, AL.
Publication year: 2008.
Page number: 237.

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